Australia has played a significant role in the international community in the development and enforcement of human rights, and has ratified key international human rights treaties. It may thus seem surprising that Australia now stands alone among democratic Western nations in its reluctance make human rights enforceable through a domestic bill of rights.

Resistance to a bill of rights appears in part to reflect a fear that such an instrument would give undue weight to minority rights, fettering the ability of the democratically elected government to respond flexibly in balancing competing social interests. Opponents of bills of rights argue that any legislative protection of human rights would promote the rights of individuals over the community as a whole and would erode the cohesiveness of Australian society.

In his Australia Day address in 2006, the Prime Minister lauded the social cohesion of Australia as the crowning achievement of the nation. At the same time, he questioned the merit of ‘further entrenching the language and culture of rights in our public discourse’ and specifically rejected calls for a bill of rights, stating that: